VARIOUS: Iran faces possible sanctions after deadline passes for it to stop nuclear work

Iran failed to stop nuclear work by a Thursday (August 31) deadline, the U.N. atomic watchdog said, clearing the way to possible sanctions by the Security Council due to Western fears Tehran could be trying to make atom bombs. A confidential report of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), leaked to Reuters, said Iran had resumed enriching small amounts of uranium in recent days. The agency said lack of Iranian cooperation had blocked its probes. "Iran has not suspended its enrichment related activities," the report said. "Iran has not addressed the long outstanding verification issues or provided the necessary transparency to remove uncertainties associated with some of its activities." US ambassador to the United States John Bolton said the IAEA report raises a red flag to the international community. "The report, short and to the point, concluded that after all these years of trying, the IAEA is still unable to confirm the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program. Now in the language of the IAEA and the international system, that's a red flag," Bolton said. U.S. President George W. Bush said Iran must face the consequences for their defiance. "Today is the deadline for Iran's leaders to reply to the reasonable proposal the international community has made. If Iran's leaders accept this offer and abandon their nuclear weapons ambitions, they can set their country on a better course. Yet so far, the Iranian regime has responded with further defiance and delay. It is time for Iran to make a choice. We made our choice. We will continue to work closely with our allies to find a diplomatic solution, but their must be consequences for Iran's defiance and we must not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon," Bush said at a news conference. The UN Security Council had asked Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the IAEA, to spell out on Aug. 31 whether Iran had complied with the deadline set in a July 31 resolution. European foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani agreed by telephone on Thursday to meet soon in hopes of clarifying Iran's response. "I have a conversation with him (Larijani), I think it was a good conversation and we are trying to see if we can arrange for a meeting in the coming days. We still we have to keep on working," Solana said on a visit to Finland for an EU foreign ministers meeting. Solana visited Tehran on June 5 to deliver a package of incentives from world powers if Iran agreed to halt uranium enrichment. Iran, in an August reply to the offer, suggested it was open to negotiations on the scope of its programme. "The reply was given by Iran on the 23rd of August," Solana said. "It was a long document of 22 pages and we have to see if we can get some understanding of some of the elements of the document which are not clear enough for us and I think that a meeting tete a tete, face to face, could clarify that and that I am going to do. I'm going to try to help most but I don't know if at the end we will have a positive outcome. We hope to have it." In a televised speech earlier on Thursday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinehjad said Iran would not yield to pressure, defying the threat of sanctions as a UN deadline fell due for Tehran to stop work that the West fears could lead to atomic bombs. "Everyone should know that, the Iranian nation will not yield to pressure over its rights," Ahmadinehjad said addressing a crowd of hundred of people. "The roots of the problems are that the heads of America want to resolve issues world-wide through using force, arms and bombs," he continued. Iran says it wants atomic energy only for electricity, although it hid sensitive research from UN inspectors for almost 20 years and has hindered U.N. investigations since. Western leaders suspect a veiled arms project and the U.N. Security Council ordered Iran to suspend the work by Aug. 31. The IAEA report said its inspectors in mid-August found traces of highly-enriched uranium, of potential use for atom bombs, in a container at Iran's Karaj Waste Storage Facility. The IAEA asked Iran to explain the source of the contamination. In the days before the deadline, Iran launched a heavy-water production plant and pressed ahead with enriching uranium -- albeit in small, insignificant amounts -- at its pilot centrifuge site in Natanz, diplomats said. But Iran, in an Aug. 22 reply to an offer from six world powers of trade incentives not to enrich uranium, suggested it was open to negotiations on the scope of its programme.

ITN Source | September 1, 2006

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